Now that we’ve added all the official photos to the W950 and K610, here’s the first batch of photos of our live coverage of Sony Ericsson’s party at the 3GSM Barcelona. A too-dark-for-great-photos event where 15-20 Sony Ericsson representatives wore W950’s around the neck, each, and where the music was played by a well known DJ Judge Jules from several Walkman Sony Ericssons! The new smatphone’s innovative keypads proved to be totally useable, with the M600’s actually having two presses per key (one for each letter, right press or left press) thus working as a proper Qwerty keyboard, and the W950’s being something not dissimilar to Motorola’s RAZR keypad, in a rubbery, more stylish way, yet very comfortable to use; whose color/graphic design they’re not all happy with, and might be changing before it goes on production, we were told. The negative point in the evening was to discover that only one P990 was hanging around with a really slow interface because the damn thing is still under development (smells like P800 spirit).
Sony Ericsson unveiled today yesterday (sorry guys, still without proper internet connection) what we’ve been calling P970/P980: a smaller, slightly watered down version of the P990 smarphone. But don’t get it wrong, it’s still a pretty interesting device. You saw how small and thin it was in the spy shots comparing a prototype case to a W800 (at 15mm, it’s actually the thinnest 3G/GSM triband phone seen to date), and many of you don’t really care about cameras at all, just as many businessmen who just aren’t allowed to use cameraphones at work. You read it right, there’s no camera in the M600 (not even one for videocall); the M sure doesn’t stand for Multimedia (altough it plays video at 30fps and music in MP3/AAC, ACC+, E-AAC+ and m4a formats), and the space between the screen and the smart Qwerty keyboard isn’t going to feature one of those Quickshare stickers (share what?); but with a 2.6″ 240×320 pixel 262k color touchscreen, 80mb internal memory, Memory Stick Micro M2 slot (64mb card included) and Bluetooth with A2D Profile (when are these guys making stereo bluetooth headphones?) in such a sleek form factor, we aren’t complaining. And since it runs on the same Symbian 9.1 OS/UIQ 3 interface as the P990, it also features all kinds of smartphone goodies: RSS reader, Opera 8 HTML web browser, Word, Excel and PowerPoint editors, VPN client, McAffee virus protection and firewall, Push email compatible with Blackberry, Exchange and a bunch of other applications; all of which the P990 will also feature when it hits the shelves in two or three weeks (after all, many of us still need the camera and the WiFi the M600 lacks ). The baby smartphone will go out on Q2 this year for an unknown-but-probably-lower-than-P990 price. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in!] M600 Official Page. M600 Press Release
By the way, if anyone is going to be around Barcelona next monday February 13th and would like to be UCSE’s correspondent in Sony Ericsson’s 3GSM media event, send me an email with your forum username (if you’re a member) because we have an invitation. Minimum requirements: digital camera able to shot pics of P990 and M600’s screens.
Less than two weeks after the announcement by Sony Ericsson of the support of Sony’s Locationfree for UIQ, Sling Media shows off compatibility of their wireless personal video broadcasting gadget (the Slingbox) for our Symbian 3G or Wifi enabled smartphones. After the jump you will find a pretty cool video of a W950 playing the different TV channels and DVD’s of, and controlling, a remote setup.
Sorry, third-parties, all JAVA-enabled Sony Ericssons now have official support from Microsoft to run their new Windows Live Messenger Mobile application. MSN/Windows Messenger site Mess.be found this goodie in a chineese MSN website. Well, actually, functionality may be a little below some other JAVA clients, but if you’re like me and only need your contact list and being able to chat with some few emoticons, you’ll take this Windows Live themed instant messenger over anything else. Apparently these download links (be careful to chose the version for your model) are completely legal and free to download, but after a couple of months they will stop working unless you pay a small unknown monthly fee. Hmm, let’s just enjoy it in the meantime and we’ll talk again in January. Check some screenshots of it running on K800 inside this entry. [Via Mess.be].
If your exact model number isn’t listed here, make sure your phone supports JAVA and then download the version of models using the same screen pixel size.
Straight out from the French Riviera, Noreve offers a series of high quality leather cases for almost all current mid-high Sony Ericssons, for those who don’t mind losing some portability in favor of protecting the precious device inside while adding a touch of style and personalization with the many leather colors available. I say losing portability because after trying these with my P990, it just won’t fit any comfortably in trousers any tighter than 50 Cent’s. It shouldn’t be a big problem for smaller models’ users though —the P990 itself isn’t very pocket-friendly anyway—, but it’s fair to say that these cases add considerable bulk to your phone, not to mention if you even attach the huge belt clip. This belt clip led McCoy, reviewer of the black M600/W950 and red P990 cases, to find a funny problem with the back screw, which you can check in the video (in all Superhandz style) after the jump, along with photos of those and my black and white P990 cases.
Lots of interesting stuff here today! The fact that Sony Ericsson has one of the most —if not the most— interesting mobile phone portfolios in the world is more unquestionable than ever. Let’s summarize it quickly because all these guys are coming in Q3:
W850: Sony Ericsson doesn’t hesitate to say it in the press release: this is one cool phone. Could we expect less from SE’s first slider? A 3G/GSM triband phone, the W850 will sell with a bundled 1gb Memory Stick Duo Pro card (not Micro) and 64mb internal memory, has a 2 megapixel camera with regular LED flashlight and no autofocus, supports Stereo Bluetooth (A2DP), the Walkman application now shows Album Art and TrackID, and the controls light up at the rythm of the music. Not sure about that after watching the animation in the official page, which shows that only a (otherwise useless?) orange bar below the screen does light up. They keep mentioning the 4gb Memory Stick Pro Duo cards but where are they? Anyway, a really great little brother for the W950. W850 Official Page W850 Press Release
W710: Aimed at the fit, sporty crowd out there, this Quadband/EDGE wearable clamshell may be —correct me if I’m wrong— the first mobile phone with an integrated motion sensor, for measuring your running speed, distance ran, or even the number of steps walked. The external screen is pretty big at 1.5″, and very useable with several buttons around while the phone is closed. It has a 2 megapixel camera with no autofocus or flash, 20mb internal memory, Bluetooth A2DP, and comes with a 512mb Memory Stick Micro card and the also new IAC-60 Stereo Headset with ear hooks to keep them in place while jumping about. W710 Official Page W710 Press Release
May is going to be unexpectedly exciting with two Sony Ericsson product presentations on the 11th and 18th of that month, the second one being “the sh**”, an internal source confirmed (the Handycam?). In the meantime, you can print out this couple of PDF’s and make it your bathroom reading matter for some weeks [Thanks Djraven for the links]:
K800 Whitepaper (includes complete comparison table with K750):
Bluetooth PAN to connect the phone to Internet using Bluetooth.
Image formats
VGA (640×480 pixels)
1 MP (1280×960 pixels)
2 MP (1632×1224 pixels)
3 MP (2048×1536 pixels) or
3 MP (2000×1500 pixels) with image stabilizer on.
- Photo key (upper/right): Camera mode: Camera scenes or Video Night mode / Standby mode: Camera album.
- Photo key (lower/left): Camera mode Camera or Video shoot mode / Standby mode: The most recent taken picture showed in full view.
Support [amont known others] for WMA music files and WMV and RealVideo video files.
[Transition effects] A menu that slides on to the screen, instead of simply appearing on the screen, is an example of a transition effect; an icon that gradually blends in to the background and then disappears is another example. (…) UIQ also supports semi-transparent windows, which enables UI elements, like menus and dialogs, for example, to have rounded corners or to let the screen area behind the window shine through. (…)
The Memory Manager handles low memory internally. It asks background applications to gracefully close down in order to free up memory. No data or settings are lost since all applications save data before closing. (…)
UIQ supports both bitmap fonts and Unicode True Type fonts. (…)
Categories to organize contacts; a contact can belong to one or several categories. (…) Backup and restore functions for all the entries [contacts] to and from external memory cards. (…) If the end user has installed an Instant Messaging (IM) application that use the Instant Messaging Integration API (…) the end user can see status and presence information in the Contacts application and use a direct navigation link to the IM application.
We missed this CeBIT report on time, but Olav from Esato.com did a pretty good job posting (big) photos and first-hand impressions of the new Sony Ericssons (and others) from Hannover:
Entry level phones J100, K310, K510, W300/Z530 and W810 [?]: Weighting only 70g makes [the J100] the lightest model ever by Sony Ericsson. (…) An untrained eye could have misstaken the Sony Ericsson K310 with a K700. (…) I was told the new M2 cards could be used with an adapter in older Sony Ericsson models.
Hands on Sony Ericsson M600: This is an exciting new feature found in M600, W950 and P990. The new spell checker. Once you start writing a word, the M600 list the best suggestions. The list of suggested words is based on the sentence content as well as word grammar. Very cool.
P990 showing very cool features: Joseph started typing “Dear ” using the stylus with handwriting recognition. The P990 responded with inserting “Sir” as a suggestion to the next word in the sentence. After clicking on “Sir”, a space was automatically inserted, and the next word “and” was typed. To finish off, P990 suggested “Madam” as the final word when this was typed in “Dear Sir and “. It did not need the “M” to suggest “Madam”. Impressive.
Sony Ericsson K800: The two buttons you see above the display is short cuts to common settings when capturing photos. The give you direct access to scenes and shoot modes
Hands on Sony Ericsson W950: The W950 should be equipped 4GB memory. The file explorer reveals that this prototype only have 64MB installed.
Their photos are so good, and make the K790/K800 screen look so awesome, we wish they weren’t the size of an M2 card. But anyway Jorgen shares his love for the new products; a feeling I’m pretty sure is common around Die Messe.
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the first real camera phone. Granted, Nokia’s N90 came close – but at 3.2 Megapixels and with stunning picture quality, the Sony Ericsson K800i blows the competition out of the water (…) One word: splendid. (…)
Although bested by the 8 GB Samsung SGH-i310, [the W950's] 4 GB of flash memory should allow for considerably longer battery life – and despite its spacious storage and superb screen, the handset remains ultra-slim at 15 mm thick. (…)
Few phones harbour the kind of functionality offered by the P990i. The swiss army knife of business phones, it couples a luscious, high-resolution touch screen with a 2 Megapixel camera for video calling in conjunction with 3G as well as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for shorter-range options. Unfortunately, its thumbboard is a tad on the cramped side, but for the power user who needs every feature under the sun it’s a winner. Did we mention the Opera 8 browser also does landscape mode? Genius.
How long have we been dreaming about this? It doesn’t matter anymore. It’s for real, Sony Ericsson has finally made a Bluetooth Stereo Headset in the shape of a couple in-ear headphones and a main unit with a display and keys for volume, track skipping and call answering, all weighing just 27 grams. Yes, there’s still some wires involved, but the main unit hangs lightly around the neck and the phone is in the pocket with no strings atached. The sound quality promises to be as outstanding as the HPM-70, and the battery life is not awful bad at up to 6 hours talk time or playback time, and 300 hours standby. Now here’s something interesting, if you check the compatibility list in its Official Page, isn’t every single Bluetooth phone since the S700 listed? Half the phones there didn’t support the A2D profile for stereo Bluetooth music streaming, did they? UPDATE: They corrected the list, now only the ones with A2DP (P990, M600 and W950 to date) are supported. The price is yet to be announced, but I really don’t care; when it comes out in Q2, I’m getting it no matter what. [Thanks Emil for the quick post] Read the Press Release
Sony Ericsson unveiled 
). The baby smartphone will go out on Q2 this year for an unknown-but-probably-lower-than-P990 price. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
Lots of interesting stuff here today! The fact that Sony Ericsson has one of the most —if not the most— interesting mobile phone portfolios in the world is more unquestionable than ever. Let’s summarize it quickly because all these guys are coming in Q3:
May is going to be unexpectedly exciting with two Sony Ericsson product presentations on the 11th and 18th of that month, the second one being “the sh**”, an internal source confirmed (the Handycam?). In the meantime, you can print out this couple of PDF’s and make it your bathroom reading matter for some weeks [Thanks Djraven for the links]:
